School officer resolves conflicts before they escalate

Mar. 28, 2013
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One of Des Moines Police Department's school resource officer, Deb VanVelzen, watches students March 12 in the hallways of Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, during a class change. / David Purdy, The Des Moines Register

by Timothy Meinch, The Des Moines Register

This school year, the officer has gotten to know the Lincoln High School senior in a different way. The two occasionally shoot hoops together and banter in the school hallways.

That's the kind of relationship VanVelzen, a school resource officer assigned to Lincoln, strives to develop with all the school's 1,620 students, from the honors student without a blemish on his record to the student who brought a handgun and ammunition on campus earlier this month.

"Good kids doing stupid things is mainly what I deal with," said VanVelzen, one of eight police officers assigned to Des Moines' middle and high schools.

Before the Newtown, Conn., elementary school massacre in December, schools across the USA had about 10,000 school resource officers, said Kerri Williamson, training director for the Hoover, Ala.-based National Association of School Resource Officers. Schools aren't required to report whether they have any kind of security presence, but the non-profit group that concentrates on training school-based law-enforcement officers has more than 3,000 members in every state.

Officials nationwide have been considering adding officers, who carry guns, or security guards, some of whom carry guns, since Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults before killing himself in the Newtown school.

Des Moines Police Chief Judy Bradshaw has said that having dedicated resource officers whom students, staff and parents know they can contact helps resolve conflicts before they escalate. It also helps build positive relationships between students and the police force.

Sellers agrees.

"It's a new day." said Sellers, an Advanced Placement student on track to graduate in May. He was charged as a juvenile, and sentenced to 66 hours of community service and restitution. "What happened in the past is past, just learn from your mistakes."

For three years, VanVelzen, who carries her service revolver along with other pieces of standard police equipment, has been Lincoln's first line of defense in major threats and emergencies. She also is called on to head off problems before they escalate.

"Have there been situations where I've had to mace a kid? Absolutely. But my job is to seek out that child when they come back to school and reconnect and build that rapport right back," said VanVelzen, whose job falls into three categories: law enforcement, counseling and teaching.

The National Rifle Association has called for adding armed officers in every school in the U.S. Others have pushed back, citing costs and fears that placing more officers in schools increases the chance that students who commit minor offenses will be funneled into the court system.

â?¢ 8 a.m. Classes began 20 minutes ago and at least 24 students are late.

The students must get a tardy slip before heading to class. As they wait in line, VanVelzen greets several by name, asking about sporting events or class projects. One student responds with an excited announcement.

"Guess what? I might be getting a job at Dahl's" grocery store," she says.

VanVelzen mentions another nearby business that is hiring and offers interview tips, including motherly words of wisdom in a dramatized tone.

"Wear appropriate clothing," she says. "Don't show them the 'groceries.' "

While students wait for their tardy slips, VanVelzen quietly watches their behavior, looks for reported runaways and checks out suspicious odors such as the smell of marijuana or alcohol. Eight Lincoln students this year have been charged with drug possession.

VanVelzen says her morning routine is always different and intentionally unpredictable.

On this morning, she begins walking the hallways 10 minutes before the first-period bell rings. She takes several minutes to talk with a student involved in a conflict with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

"I do that quite a bit actually," VanVelzen says. "Kids come to me asking what my opinion is and what my advice is."

â?¢ 9:10 a.m. A bell signals the end of the first class period and VanVelzen heads for the hallway. She stations herself near a wall and surveys the activity, joking with a couple of students with a sarcastic humor she describes as goofy.

"I use a lot of humor with the kids," VanVelzen says.

Moments after the second bell sounds, she uses a stern, less-than-sarcastic tone to hurry along straggling students.

A teacher approaches and hands VanVelzen a note. A student has been reported offering pills to another student, the teacher says.

"It's happened continually," says the teacher, who was notified by a student, then parents.

VanVelzen decides to pass the information onto Vice Principal Victor Glawe. The issue is one that should be dealt with by school officials, not police, she says.

VanVelzen returns to her office, but before she can contact Glawe, she gets a phone call from a student who is skipping school. The student tells VanVelzen that his parents kicked him out of their home after he came home drunk.

The parents had told school administrators the boy ran away. VanVelzen is caught in the middle.

"You can't just show up intoxicated," she says over the phone, encouraging him to come to school. "Want me to come get you? â?¦ We can feed you."

He declines the offer.

â?¢ 10 a.m. VanVelzen drops in on a meeting between Glawe and leadership of the 2013 senior class.

School administrators and VanVelzen largely credit the seniors with setting the tone of a good year regarding safety and behavior at Lincoln.

It helps that many of the seniors have known VanVelzen since elementary school when she was a soccer coach and volunteer traffic guard, the officer says. Some seniors were classmates with her daughter, now a senior at a different school.

"Since (VanVelzen) has been here, it's gradually got better," senior Roy Patterson says of safety concerns and violence at the school. "We've had less fights this year."

Several seniors say they feel safer with a police officer on campus. Inversely, school administrators and VanVelzen say they depend on the student body to help maintain a safe environment.

"The student body (is) the eyes and the ears on the ground in this building," Lincoln Principal Paul Williamson says.

Williamson emphasizes the message, following an incident involving a student who recently brought a gun and ammunition on campus. Another student alerted staff about the weapon.

"Because a student stepped up, we were able to discover that (handgun)," Williamson says. "Who knows what would have happened had it been five minutes later."

It was the third time this school year that a gun was confiscated from a student on school grounds in Des Moines, officials say. Since August, 14 fights - the lowest number in the district's five high schools - have been reported at Lincoln.

â?¢ 11 a.m. VanVelzen drives her cruiser two miles south of Lincoln to the ninth-grade building with about 500 students.

Three years ago the campus had numerous issues with fighting, thefts and small fires in the restrooms, says Cindy Steben, a campus monitor. The problems decreased after the installation of cameras and a public address system.

"It has helped tremendously," Steben says while glancing at seven live images on her laptop monitor. "I have seven cameras in this building, which is not nearly enough."

VanVelzen says the same trend has occurred at Lincoln's senior high building, which now includes three exterior cameras and about 20 interior cameras since installation began two years ago.

VanVelzen generally checks in on the ninth-graders once a day. She chats with Steben and then says hello to about 10 students in lunch detention.

â?¢ 11:55 a.m. VanVelzen returns to Lincoln and heads to a criminal law class where she makes a guest appearance answering students' questions. The time in a classroom gives VanVelzen an opportunity to get to know specific students.

â?¢ 1:15 p.m. Four distressed female students bombard VanVelzen with complaints against another student. This morning she had offered advice to one of them.

The verbal fighting and name calling has gone to the next level, one teen says, adding she wants a restraining order. The teens say another student tried to run them over in the parking lot during the lunch hour.

VanVelzen and Campus Monitor Rachel Nicoletto direct the students to the administrative office to file reports of the incident. VanVelzen and Nicoletto head to the basement to review camera footage.

"If the video shows (the driver) swerving at them, this girl could get a citation and she could potentially be charged with assault with a motor vehicle," VanVelzen says.

The incident was captured on video. Nicoletto and VanVelzen note the driver made no attempt to slow down as the students slowly crossed the campus street beside the student parking lot. And the group, Nicoletto and VanVelzen say, made no attempt to quickly get out of the vehicle's way.

"To me this is a total school issue," VanVelzen says.

School officials say collaboration between administrators and police is key to walking students through conflict resolution and limiting legal offenses at schools. She returns to Glawe's office to fill him in on the escalating tension.

"Some kids are all about drama and other kids won't report it if their life depended on it," Nicoletto says.

â?¢ 2:25 p.m. "We smell fire," Glawe shouts to VanVelzen, who is heading back to her office before the final bell rings.

VanVelzen quickly follows Glawe up a flight of stairs. They meet a teacher and enter a smoky bathroom on the second floor. The teacher points to a particular stall, where a small piece of charred toilet paper is on the floor. There are no flames. If there had been, Glawe would have pulled the fire alarm.

"We don't mess around with this type of thing," he says.

â?¢ 2:35 p.m. VanVelzen stands on a perch overlooking the main entryway and watches as the students congregate as they wait for buses. She knows the pattern of chaos and horseplay, keeping an eye out for suspicious groups forming.

If everyone clears out quickly, that calls for investigation, she says.

With no incidents during dismissal, VanVelzen returns to her office to catch up on paperwork. It was a light day even though she didn't have time for lunch, VanVelzen says.